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force steam *not* to start in big picture mode
ExpandingMan Dec 11, 2022
The big picture mode on latest beta is totally borked for me. Audio plays but it won't render anything. My steam install is now borked as a result because I can't disable it.

Does anyone know a way for me to start steam or reset configuration to defaults? I tried deleting `.steam/steam/config/config.vdf` but this does nothing.
whizse Dec 11, 2022
I think it might be controlled by the StartupMode variable in .steam/registry.vdf ?
ExpandingMan Dec 11, 2022
Well, that was extremely frustrating.

I started moving and deleting stuff to try to get it to please just stop this stupid big picture nonsense already and it was starting to look like whatever was going on was in `steamapps` so I just nuked the entire installation.

Quoting: whizseI think it might be controlled by the StartupMode variable in .steam/registry.vdf ?

Sadly it does not appear so, I tried deleting all the registries and it didn't work.

Last edited by ExpandingMan on 11 December 2022 at 6:47 pm UTC
WorMzy Dec 11, 2022
Quoting: whizseI think it might be controlled by the StartupMode variable in .steam/registry.vdf ?
Can confirm. Changing StartupMode to '0' in ~/.steam/registry.vdf makes Steam start in desktop mode. Setting it to '1' makes Steam start in Big Picture mode.
ExpandingMan Dec 12, 2022
Yes! Thanks. I'm not sure what happened when I tried to move the file, I guess I failed to delete all the backups.

For the record, the value to set within `registry.vdf` is
Registry.HKCU.Software.Valve.Steam.StartupMode
which should be set to `"0"`.
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